The Wii U’s library may have been sorely lacking when it came to quantity – a Catch-22 situation resulting from poor hardware sales – but there could be no argument that many of its exclusives excelled in terms of quality. The 13 million people who did bother to buy a Wii U found that these self-appointed harbingers of doom were completely wrong. Of course, these people conveniently ignored the countless excellent core gamer friendly games that were released for the Wii, but the damage was already done: the Wii U’s name was mud among many circles before it even had a chance to make its mark. The second, and more crucial reason, was that the Wii brand had become toxic among a certain sadly vocal section of the gaming community, the self-appointed so-called hardcore gamers who decided that with the Wii Nintendo had betrayed its loyal customers by daring to release games that were wildly successful and brought gaming to a wider audience. The first was poor marketing – Nintendo could never really succinctly explain how the Wii U’s unique two-screen gimmick worked, causing some to believe it was instead a tablet add-on for the original (flatlining) Wii. My own personal belief was that it was a combination of two things. There are many theories as to why the Wii U died on its arse.

Such was the fate of the Wii U, a console that arrived on the heels of the wildly successful Wii and somehow went on to undo all the fine work Nintendo’s motion-sensitive phenomenon had managed. Look at the Wii, the DS, the SNES, the Game Boy Advance.īut when it does badly – the GameCube, the Virtual Boy – it does really badly, finishing a distant last place against its competitors.

When Nintendo does well, it does really well. Well, there isn’t really but I’m making it up now and I’ve decided it should be one. There’s a saying in gaming when it comes to Nintendo. If you want to contribute and help me reach my next goal (to start a Tired Old Hack podcast), please visit my Patreon page. ’30 Best’ will now be a regular series, thanks to my lovely Patreon followers helping me reach a stretch goal. In case you missed them, the full list of other ’30 Best’ articles can be found at the bottom of this page. This is the eighth in my ’30 Best’ series of articles in which I discuss my favourite games ever on a system-by-system basis for the first time in my career.

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